Group III-V compound semiconductors such as GaN and AlGaN are widely used in lamps for optoelectronics and electronic devices owing to many advantages associated with having wide and adjustable band gap energy.
In particular, light emitting devices, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes (LDs), which use Group III-V or Group II-VI compound semiconductor materials, may render various colors such as red, green, blue, and ultraviolet by virtue of development of thin film growth technologies and device materials. It may also be possible to produce white light at high efficiency using fluorescent materials or through color mixing. Furthermore, the light emitting devices have advantages, such as low power consumption, semi-permanent lifespan, fast response time, safety, and environmental friendliness, compared to conventional light sources such as fluorescent lamps and incandescent lamps.
Accordingly, these light emitting devices are increasingly applied to transmission modules of optical communication units, light emitting diode backlights as replacements for cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) constituting backlights of liquid crystal display (LCD) devices, and lighting apparatuses using white light emitting diodes as replacements for fluorescent lamps or incandescent lamps, headlights for vehicles, and traffic lights.
When light emitting diodes are used for backlight units or the like, at least one light emitting diode package is disposed on each circuit board module, and the circuit board modules are electrically connected to one another by connectors, thereby forming a circuit board module array.
FIG. 1 is a view illustrating a conventional circuit board module array. FIG. 2 is a view illustrating connectors in FIG. 1.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, the circuit board module array consists of adjacent circuit board modules 100a and 100b, and each of the circuit board modules 100a and 100b includes a light emitting device package 150 disposed on a circuit board 110.
A pair of connectors 120 and 130 is disposed at both ends of the circuit board 110, and a pair of terminals 125 and a pair of terminals 135 are inserted into the respective connectors 120 and 130 to be disposed therein.
FIG. 1 illustrates the state in which the connectors 120 and 130 are coupled to each other in region “A”.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, when the connectors 120 and 130 are coupled to each other, the terminals 125 and 135 in the respective connectors 120 and 130 are electrically interconnected, and thus the adjacent circuit board modules 100a and 100b may be electrically connected to each other.
However, the above-mentioned conventional circuit board module array and connectors are problematic for the follows reasons.
First, heat is generated when current flows in the circuit board module, and the board or connectors may expand or contract depending on the change in heat generation. Therefore, the connectors may be unstably fastened to each other, and the coupled connectors 120 and 130 may be decoupled from each other. In addition, the connectors 120 and 130 may be decoupled from each other when force is longitudinally applied to the circuit board from the outside.
Secondly, the connectors are fastened to each other by inserting a portion of one connector 120 into the other connector 130, as illustrated in the drawings. In this case, an error may occur in the process in which, when many boards are interconnected, the connectors 120 and 130 having two different shapes are differentially arranged depending on the directions of the boards.